The Splinter Man - Softcover

Devlin, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1521091528 ISBN 13: 9781521091524

Publisher: Independently published, 2017

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The tale is set in the 1960’s and turns around a background of drug addiction and crime and has a strong psychological focus. It deals with Frankie, a young man who is on the horns of a dilemma. As the tale develops and ends his integrity he emerges as a bruised and ambivalent survivor. The Splinter Man is set in a small town in Fife and describes the anti-hero, Frankie, following his addiction to drugs and his incorporation into a local crime syndicate. There he has to make choices between taking part in the violent and profit-making activities of the gang or holding true to the prevailing 1960’s liberal values that make him the person he is. The story begins with the backdrop of his father’s disappearance and a murder. An elliptical transition shifts the action to Frankie and the local drug racket which is controlled by a local businessman. Frankie is co-opted with mixed motives into his gang and becomes a central character. The opening chapters describe life when you are caught up with addiction and street violence and trying to hold down a job. It tries to capture the contradictions which exist when an ordinary young man finds himself metamorphosing through the use of drugs into someone he, himself, does not recognise. Frankie becomes increasingly involved with his community including characters such as Scott Galbraith a dominant underworld figure and his anithesis Inspector Jim McManus, Frankie's girlfriend Jennie and the beautiful but tragic figure of Yvonne, Scott's daughter. As the violence increases the story sees Frankie drawn into the midnight burial of an unidentified body in a forestry plantation in the nearby hills. This triggers an escalation and an unravelling series of events. The book races to finish with murder, mayhem, and the physical and psychological disintegration of a number of the central characters. The story ends dramatically but not without hope. Will Frankie survive to fight another day? Read on!

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